


if ye break faith...

by Medie



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-22
Updated: 2010-02-22
Packaged: 2017-10-07 11:45:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/64850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medie/pseuds/Medie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cedric Diggory was worth remembering, problem is Cedric Diggory doesn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	if ye break faith...

**Author's Note:**

> written for [](http://minisinoo.livejournal.com/profile)[**minisinoo**](http://minisinoo.livejournal.com/) for the [First lines Drabble meme](http://minisinoo.livejournal.com/388325.html). title taken from [In Flander's Fields](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Flander%27s_Fields_%28poem%29) by John McCrae

Cedric Diggory was worth remembering not because he'd been perfect -- but because he'd been kind.

At least, he's been told that Cedric Diggory was kind and he doubts Hermione has any reason to lie. She watches him with cautious, worried eyes when she thinks he isn't paying attention. He suppresses his smile, he's not sure if this is something that Cedric would smile about, and goes back to the books before him.

*

The uncomfortable silences quickly prove bothersome, frustrating, and he catches himself wishing they'd just give up their visits altogether. He ends up feeling guilty for that on top of the frustration, Cedric would be happy to see them. They're his friends. Or, rather, they say they are. That frustrates him as well; the history that he's no longer privy to, the in-jokes, comments, and looks were all a language unknown to him.

He catches on quickly, making conversation, figures on where and when he can ask questions. He learns a little at a time from the half-answers and sketchy responses given to him.

They're afraid to tell him too much, he doesn't need to know what Cedric would think to see it.

*

When he sleeps, sometimes he dreams. It doesn't happen often but he wakes with a face in his mind. There's a name to go with it, always on the tip of his tongue, but he can't make his lips say it.

When the face shows up one morning, walking through the door with a tentative expression on its familiar features, it's the first time something really connects.

"Harry?" he sits up straighter, puts down the quill in his hands.

Harry is older than the face in his mind and it begins to sink in just how long he's been...away. The others have told him, of course, but there is a certain distance between intellectually knowing something and accepting it.

"Cedric," Harry says in turn, voice quieter than he recalls. His voice is different, a weariness present that gives him pause. "You're awake." He looks faintly amused. "Which you would know already."

"Sometimes I wonder," Cedric manages a smile and taps his temple.

"Ah, yes, right," Harry nods quickly. "The curse -- "

"Wasn't oblivate," Cedric shrugs. "I'm quite the teaching case around the ward." He permits a wry grin. "At least I'm still somewhat useful." They try not to say anything about it, speak in quiet whispers, but he knows there's a war on. A darkness lurks in the back of his mind, a memory that his mind refuses to let him revisit.

He's suspected from the start he was one of the unnamed war's first casualties. Harry makes a bleak attempt at a smile and that confirms it.

*

"Don't remember a thing then?" Harry asks over a glass of pumpkin juice.

Cedric swallows, slow and deliberate, taking his time. "I remember you," he finally says, picking a chocolate frog out of the pile between them.

"Really?" Harry seems almost _pleased. _

"Really," Cedric blinks at the face grinning back at him from the card. "When did this happen?" He asks, holding it up for Harry's perusal.

Harry blushes. "Don't know." He waves a hand. "Tried to get them to cancel the lot but -- " He shrugs. "They treat me like I'm some sort of legend."

"There's a war on, Harry," Cedric reminds. "They need their heroes."

"Even if I'm not particularly heroic?" Harry frowns.

"_Especially_ then," Cedric advises.

"Good," Harry says, a hint of mischief creeping into the word. "I've got about three of you."

Cedric stares at him.

"You don't remember," Harry says seriously. "So the rest of us do."


End file.
